Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated speaks the truth … again. While our beat and local press are out there campaigning for Karl Dorrell (TJ Simers, Bob Keisser, and Brian Dohn), the national press is telling it like it is. Another case in point is Mandel's recent mailbag column in which he answers emails from fans. Here is what Mandel had to say about an email that pertains to Mr. Mediocrity (HT to DD reader Fred Wallin): read more
Sports Illustrated has a poll out this week on who the worst college football coach in America is. Karl Dorrell is one of the 4 coaches listed (Bill Callahan - Nebraska, Dennis Franchione - Texas A&M, Houston “Cut The” Nutt - Arkansas) in addition to “other.” Go to the poll at the bottom right of the page and vote. Dorrell is in dead last most likely due to the fact that the other coaches have a significantly more passionate fan base. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t represent. So go vote for Karl Dorrell to win something! Chances are he will come in 5th place even at being worst. Oh well.
It simply cannot get any worse for UCLA. Anyway you spin the Dorrell era you cannot get away from the fact that massive sports news organizations are hammering our football program … and that is costing us millions. Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel, one of the most respected college football journalists in the country, has finally tagged Dorrell The Worst Coach In The Country (HT to bruinmike88 at BruinsNation): read more
Two more articles on the Dorrell madness we are dealing with. First up, Ted Miller of Seattle Post Intelligencer, writing for ESPN.com, has an entire article on the reduced expectations we now have this season for our team: read more
When talking about the precarious position Dennis Franchione is in at Texas A&M, Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel takes the obvious dig at Karl Dorrell:
Sure, your current 5-1 record (which includes no victories over a current top 60 opponent, according to CollegeBCS.com) helps mask your precipitous status to the outside world a little better than the doomed plights of, say, Arizona's Mike Stoops (whose record makes yours look like Bob Stoops' in comparison) and UCLA's Karl Dorrell (who somehow forgot to have a backup quarterback ready last week … can you believe that?!) …
One more memorable quote before we close for the night. It comes from Sports Illustrated's Ivan Maisel who feels burned by Dorrell yet again:
Finally, it figures the one week I finally disregard the Karl Dorrell factor and bump UCLA up seven spots in the power rankings, they go and put up a vintage Dorrell-caliber letdown, getting destroyed on the road by an 0-2 Utah team. Technically, it has no bearing on the Bruins’ Rose Bowl hopes — but I’m pretty sure it ain’t happening.
Right about now Sporting News' Matt Hayes, who thinks Dorrell is one of the best coaches in the NCAA and who picked UCLA as his sleeper to win the national title and who named Training Jay as the BEST offseason hire, is wondering how to spin Dorrell's latest blunder. You can email Matt Hayes at: mhayes AT sportingnews.com.
Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated is writing interesting articles these days … and they get talked about. Remember Mandel was the one who said Dorrell was one of the 5 worst coaches in college football and that the West Coast Offense was too complicated and not right for college. Yesterday, Mandel divided Div 1A teams into a class structure, based on power and prestige, and it’s generating talk. He used Kings for the top class, Barons as second tier class, and then Knights and Peasants to round out the pecking order. He puts UCLA football in the Baron class along with Auburn, Clemson, Colorado, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Washington and Wisconsin. In the top tier King class he has, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas and USC. Interesting read. We can do better.
Name one coach that has successfully implemented a West Coast Offense in college football?? Waiting … waiting. Exactly. Not one. In defense of his report on the worst coaches in college football in which he placed Karl Dorrell as #5 worst, Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel railed against what he believes to be major flaw for 3 coaches listed in his report: The WCO.
Here is what Mandel had to say:
Furthermore, it’s asking a lot of college quarterbacks to run a full-fledged, NFL-style version of the West Coast offense. It’s just too complicated. At other programs that have attempted it, the typical QB has taken three years to fully grasp it. (UCLA’s Drew Olson being a perfect example.) Callahan has been fortunate thus far to be able to land a juco transfer (Zac Taylor) who’d already been in the system and now a fifth-year senior transfer in Sam Keller. It won’t always be that way. When the inevitable day comes that he needs to start a freshman or sophomore, it’s going to be 2004-05 all over again.
Finally — and this doesn’t apply just to Callahan but to nearly all the NFL-bred coaches in the collegiate ranks today — you do not win championships in college anymore by playing not to lose (as they often do in the pros). It’s a huge pet peeve of mine and a common theme among the worst coaches nominees (see Dorrell, Karl; Gailey, Chan). The strange thing is, Callahan has shown he’s more than willing to break out the flea flickers and other trick plays, but in last year’s USC and Oklahoma games, and when the game was on the line against Auburn, he retreated to all-out, run-it-into-the-line-three-straight-times-and-play-defense mode. I can’t emphasize this enough. I hate that.
So why are there die-hards like Dorrell trying pull sinking ships against the current when there are better options? Some would say that Dorrell is sticking to his WCO so that he can look more attractive for his long-sought-after NFL job. We hope that’s not true and that Dorrell simply mistakenly believes the WCO can work. But there is no evidence that it does over time. With Callahan’s former OC now at the helm of our offense it will not be surprising if we stall during many games. One thing to remember, Dorrell doesn’t have an All-America and best kicker in the country to bail him out (HT to Achilles at BruinsNation).
Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated brought the hammer down on Karl Dorrell today with a scathing report on his tenure as coach of our Bruin football team (HT to BruinEd03 at BruinsNation). By gauging “who is doing the least with the most,” Mandel figures Dorrell is currently the 5th worst coach in NCAA div 1. Now even we haven’t gone that far, but we can’t argue with him either. Here is what Mandel has to say:
5) Karl Dorrell, UCLA: Last year’s USC upset was the first sign Dorrell’s Bruins were finally turning the corner — and they promptly followed it up with the Emerald Bowl debacle. On paper, UCLA looks like a BCS contender this year, but Dorrell’s track record doesn’t inspire much confidence.
True dat! Has Dorrell really ever inspired confidence?? Maybe for a brief flicker after the SuC victory. That was when even stalwart supporters in the MSM like J.A. Adande of the LA Times finally felt comfortable to admit publicly that he felt all along that Dorrell was “in over his head” (until the SuC victory proved he had turned the proverbial corner). How right he was … all along. This year Dorrell is losing that base support in the MSM. The pressure is on .. there are no excuses to hide behind. Go Bruins!!
Editor’s Note: Click here for an updated version of the 2007 college football pre-season rankings.
As expected, many 2007 pre-season rankings have us ranked highly. Not a surprise, given that 17 of the 20 returning starters are seniors and our toughest games are at home, except at SC. The Austin American Statesman, that bastion of sports guruness, has us ranked higher than anyone at #4. No explanation either. What is also a surprise is that there are rankings without us on them. Even a mediocre coach like Dorrell can win 9 games, which should put us in the top 25. Still no respect.
For the most part, however, the pollsters are picking UCLA to finish read more
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